That's true. As you say, JMS is great at long-term stories involving character changes and building tension.

Concerning LotR, the rule "never retreat from battle" is stupid alright, but it has occurred on earth in various traditions,

Not as a matter of policy. Maybe for a specific battle, but not as a standard method of operations.

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and it's JMS' universe after all. Yet I do not think Sinclair would have created a rule as absurd as that... perhaps Minbari tradition corrupted his teachings, it happens (it already happened in the first war against the shadows, with that radical group mentioned In Valen's Name... I forgot its name). [EDIT: I seem to have forgot that Delenn was Entil'Zha for some time then... she could have changed such a rule. As things stand, it really seems stupid enough. Even suggesting that such a rule might make an enemy think twice before engaging ranger ships is a poor explanation, so... you're right. Not very logical.]

Having a policy of "We never retreat for any reason." is idiotic, especially when you're stretched thin on personnel (young kids in relatively high positions, e.g. ship captains) and resources (e.g. Whitestars), is idiotic, and Delenn is no idiot.

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The bad guys: What was wrong about them?

They were stupid (required for the plot to work). They passed many chances to destroy the Liandra (but then the story would have been over.). They got suckered over and over again. Not the sharpest knives in the drawer.

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That they looked like executioners? I think they were hooded and their voice was modulated

No, that part worked OK.

__________________
Mac Breck (KoshN)
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"Crusade" (1999) - "War Zone"
Max Eilerson: "The story of my life. I finally find a city like this, intact, deserted for ten thousand years. Probably contains hundreds of patents that I could exploit and I'm going to die. I can appreciate dramatic irony as much as the next person, but this is pushing it a bit."

I'm not counting it against anybody. I was just saying that Sci-Fi cancelled SG-1, so soon all there will be is SG-A. I don't think that qualifies as "numerous Stargates" (shows not gates).

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And frankly, they should have pulled the plug a while ago. Their series "reboot" with the new enemy and new team isn't working as well as it should.

I think it's going fine. I've watched SG-1 Seasons 1 thru 9. I haven't had The Sci-Fi Channel since Dec. 2003, when Comcast (Pittsburgh, PA) moved the channel from Extended Basic to Digital, so I've watched since then via the DVD sets. I've come to accept both Ben Browder and Claudia Black in SG-1 , and am looking forward to the SG-1 Season 10 DVD Set coming out on July 24th.

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Hell, it took them a long time to go almost no where with their first enemy. The show as a whole never really impressed me that much, so I was very surprised it lasted 10 seasons.

I'm not surprised. They had and have an excellent cast and a very accessible show (easy to step into).

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Can't knock SciFi channel for cancelling SG1 though, it had more than its run, and there are possibly a couple movies to come.

I'm not knocking anybody. I'm just stating it as a fact. The Sci-Fi Channel cancelled SG-1, and so there soon will be only SG-A left, and that hardly counts as "numerous Stargates" (darth librarian's words).

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Also, Stargate Atlantis (which is MUCH better IMO) is still running strong.

I've seen SG-1 Seasons 1 thru 9, and the pilot episode of SG-A. Still haven't bought or rented the SG-A DVD Season Sets. I wasn't all that impressed with SG-A, though I'm happy to hear that Carter (Amanda Tapping) is going over to SG-A. I was disappointed that Jessica Steen did not continue in the role of Dr. Weir. I prefer Jessica Steen to Torri Higginson.

__________________
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-----------------------------
"Crusade" (1999) - "War Zone"
Max Eilerson: "The story of my life. I finally find a city like this, intact, deserted for ten thousand years. Probably contains hundreds of patents that I could exploit and I'm going to die. I can appreciate dramatic irony as much as the next person, but this is pushing it a bit."

Last edited by KoshN; April 21st 07 at 00:37.
Reason: fixed punctuation

An actor change for the same character is never a good thing, but Torri is definitely hotter than Jessica. No complaints there.

How long has it been since you got your eyes checked? You need to see an optometrist/opthamologist. Torri Higginson reminds me of "Number 1" (played by Majel Barrett) from the Star Trek pilot, i.e. not hot at all. Jessica's cute.

__________________
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-----------------------------
"Crusade" (1999) - "War Zone"
Max Eilerson: "The story of my life. I finally find a city like this, intact, deserted for ten thousand years. Probably contains hundreds of patents that I could exploit and I'm going to die. I can appreciate dramatic irony as much as the next person, but this is pushing it a bit."

I wasn't all that impressed with SG-A, though I'm happy to hear that Carter (Amanda Tapping) is going over to SG-A. I was disappointed that Jessica Steen did not continue in the role of Dr. Weir. I prefer Jessica Steen to Torri Higginson.

I think having Carter over there could make things interesting, but to me its a bit of a cop-out. The show is great on its own, no need to keep bleeding SG1 people into it.

And Jessica Steen was only "Dr Weir" for like, one episode, maybe two, in SG1. The very next SG1 season Torri jumped in her place and obviously made the transition to SG-A. Frankly, I think Torri was better from Day 1. I always liked her in that role over Jessica.

(and while it doesn't directly relate to that opinion, I think Torri is better looking too. )

__________________The Operative: "Do you know what your sin is?"Malcom Reynolds: "Aw hell, I'm a fan of all seven... but right now, I'm gonna have to go with Wrath."

I think having Carter over there could make things interesting, but to me its a bit of a cop-out. The show is great on its own, no need to keep bleeding SG1 people into it.

I don't care, because I like seeing Carter.

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And Jessica Steen was only "Dr Weir" for like, one episode, maybe two, in SG1. The very next SG1 season Torri jumped in her place and obviously made the transition to SG-A. Frankly, I think Torri was better from Day 1. I always liked her in that role over Jessica.

(and while it doesn't directly relate to that opinion, I think Torri is better looking too. )

Oh come on! I think some of you just like disagreeing with me, regardless of how you actually feel.

Gotta admit Torri doesn't look bad here:

I just realized we've strayed waaaaay off topic.

__________________
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-----------------------------
"Crusade" (1999) - "War Zone"
Max Eilerson: "The story of my life. I finally find a city like this, intact, deserted for ten thousand years. Probably contains hundreds of patents that I could exploit and I'm going to die. I can appreciate dramatic irony as much as the next person, but this is pushing it a bit."

Would have preferred to do this as an Edit, but I guess that time has passed.

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Originally Posted by KoshN

Not as a matter of policy. Maybe for a specific battle, but not as a standard method of operations.

Having a policy of "We never retreat for any reason." is idiotic, especially when you're stretched thin on personnel (young kids in relatively high positions, e.g. ship captains) and resources (e.g. Whitestars), is idiotic, and Delenn is no idiot.

http://www.jmsnews.com/msg.aspx?id=1-16471Bear in mind that there were only ever about a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty whitestars built during the Shadow War. A LOT of those got wiped out during said war, so now you've got maybe 80 or so. You conserve your best ships for big jobs, you don't have them doing this kind of grunt work.

Exactly, and after the shadow war, a lot of higher ranking/experienced rangers were dead, leading to getting promoted earlier.

Also, the Liandra isn't like the Enterprise, it's more like a PT boat, and there's a huge difference between the captain of a PT boat and a captain of the John F. Kennedy, though both are technically captains on their vessels.
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__________________
Mac Breck (KoshN)
-----------------------------
"Crusade" (1999) - "War Zone"
Max Eilerson: "The story of my life. I finally find a city like this, intact, deserted for ten thousand years. Probably contains hundreds of patents that I could exploit and I'm going to die. I can appreciate dramatic irony as much as the next person, but this is pushing it a bit."

I agree that it's stupid, but just to play devil's advocate, maybe the policy of never retreating for any reason has migrated over from the Minbari warrior caste and hasn't yet been revised for the current state of affairs?

Where you have one third of a planet's population devoted to training and arming for war, and for most of their history used to enjoying total technological superiority, the idea of tactically retreating from combat might actually be a bit of a moot point, since your military resources are never exactly stretched, you have little chance of being killed, and there are plenty more warm bodies where you came from, all fully trained already.

Now if we assume that the Rangers recruit some of their members from the warrior caste, they're going to need to appear at least as fanatical and probably even more nuts just to distinguish themselves. In fact they're a bit like the Crusader Knights - their job is to throw themselves at the enemy in a religious frenzy. Seeing them get slaughtered for the rightness of their cause is okay, seeing them in retreat could break the morale of the army behind them. Seeing a lot of expensive military hardware go down with them is probably regrettable, but ultimately that's a problem for the accountants.

This was a "D" from me, mainly because I expected much more than was given, saved only because of G'Kar ( Andreas). While I recall some roots on the "never retreat" idiocy in the episode on "terror', the ranger who got beat up and had to go after the "bad guys", it was still stupid, IMHO.

I also really hated the main character to be named David: I'd reserve that name for David Sheridan, personal foible.